“I promise,” he added.
Cassian dabbed the wound dry with care, then applied salve in light strokes before wrapping the ankle steadily.
“Ouch,” the little girl shrieked, her tiny hands taking a fistful of Isabella’s dress.
In turn, Isabella wrapped her arms around her little sister, whispering soft, assuring words in her ear.
Cassian felt a tingling at the pit of his stomach as he watched the exchange, the sight tugging violently at his heartstrings. When he finished, he tied the bandage neatly and rose to his full height.
“Thank you, Your Grace,” Ellie sniffed and whispered shyly.
Cassian’s expression softened. “You did very well.”
“I am sorry I broke your greenhouse,” Ellie apologized again in a timid rush, and Cassian huffed a faint breath that might have been a laugh.
“I told you, it has been falling apart for years. No need to apologize.”
It was then that he caught Isabella’s gaze.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “Truly.”
Cassian nodded once, his gaze traveling over her face and searching her eyes. She didn’t back away from the gaze; instead, she kept hers steady on him, as though waiting in expectation of something.
“It was nothing,” he replied, thinking a reply was what she awaited.
With that, she took her sister’s arm and motioned to leave, but not before casting a final glance in his direction.
And his heart skipped a beat.
Oh, he was an utter fool.
Chapter Fourteen
The carriage wheels rolled steadily along the quiet London streets, carrying Isabella and Eleanor toward home, but that did little to soothe Isabella’s turbulent thoughts.
Ellie sat curled against her side, her small hands tucked beneath Isabella’s cloak for warmth. Though her ankle remained tender, she seemed far calmer now, occasionally glancing up with weary eyes.
Isabella, however, felt anything but calm.
Her mind raced with images she could not dispel of Cassian lifting Ellie with such care, his voice softening into something warm and utterly unrecognizable from the cold, severe Duke she believed she knew. The expression he wore when he cleaned the scratch on Ellie’s leg had unsettled her more deeply than she wished to admit.
You know nothing of what I care about.
His words from the ball echoed in her mind like a distant reminder. Had she been mistaken about him? He certainly seemed to have hidden qualities that she had not fathomed.
He had been… gentle and protective and wholly unlike anything she had imagined possible from a man whose reputation thrived on rumors of ruthlessness.
The stolen duke.
She recalled the name she had heard whispered in ballrooms, but she still could not fathom what it meant.
He had touched Ellie as though she were precious, as though she were his own kin.
The thought set Isabella’s heart stumbling in its rhythm, confusion tightening beneath her ribs.
“What happened, Ellie?” Isabella finally asked, breaking the silence. “How did you end up in the greenhouse?” She needed something to take her mind off the duke, anything at all that would distract her.
“I saw a cat.” Ellie shifted, glancing nervously at her before answering.
